A year in the planning, U.S. SQUASH has started its rollout of the planned restructuring of the junior rankings system for the 2010-2011 season. The changes are based on feedback from players, teaching professionals, parents, fans and officials. Juniors are now ranked by a points-based system designed to provide the fairest and most accurate method of ranking junior players, while also encouraging participation and incentivizing players to challenge themselves.
A player earns points based on his or her finishing position in sanctioned tournaments. Tournaments are divided into five main groups. Listed in order of descending point value, they are: U.S. Championship, Junior Championship Tour, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. A player’s ranking is determined by the average of their points earned over a minimum of four tournaments on a rolling calendar. As players play more events, they are able to drop the results from some tournaments in which they earned the least points.
The rankings run on a rolling basis, with no definitive end to the season. The points earned from a tournament are factored into a player’s ranking average for 10 months (43 weeks). After this time, the tournament falls off the player’s ranking.
Players of any ranking may apply for entry into all tournament levels. However, some tournaments may be restricted in size due to demand and court restrictions, such as in the case of JCT and Gold tournaments. U.S. SQUASH is working with tournament directors to control the sanctioned tournament calendar in order to encourage adequate participation in all tournaments and proper regional distribution of events.
There is a conversion period into the new system which will conclude by the end of January. Conversion tournament values are assigned to players based on their rating before the transition began in September.
For more information, please see the 2010-2011 U.S. Junior Squash Guide, available on the Association website (www.ussquash.com). U.S. SQUASH would like to thank all of the individuals who provided input throughout the process. U.S. SQUASH looks forward to collecting data throughout this season to continue to improve the system in the coming months and years.
